Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Saturday, Nov. 15, 2003 - 12:30 a.m.

So, this is what I have "learned" in the last few days.

1. There are way too many petty, spiteful, pathetic assholes in the world who apparently need to bag on other people to be happy. I suppose if you have created tons of misery in your own life, it's possible that you've run out of space for all your nastiness and need to spill over onto others. There are two ways for me to view this. A, you are really insecure and in pain and probably badly need validation. And B, you are a miserable, vile person and tear yourself apart every day in worse ways than anyone else ever could. To which I say, good. I am done with that turn the other cheek crap. Taste the misery you dish out and shut the hell up. If you were slightly nicer and at least *attempted* to be a decent human being, maybe you'd get the validation you are seeking, you pathetic piece of crap.

I could cite many examples of such, but the one that leaps to mind that you can surf out is losers.org. The site administrators there are, indeed, losers; as opposed to the sites they bag on. I doubt, however, they are bright enough to see the irony there. To each his own.

2. If one is in public, one should voice one's displeasure with whatever the situation at hand in a calm, quiet manner. One need not shriek and pitch a hissyfit in the middle of a quiet electronics store. There I am, standing in line to return something. I've been standing in line quite a long time, because there's only one person on-duty, and he is busy helping someone who is intelligence-challenged, appearing to believe that if she repeatedly asks the same question, the answer will, eventually, change. I've been standing there a good 15 minutes or so, and yes, I'm getting pretty irritated, because neither the guy on-duty nor his off-duty coworker who is speaking with someone else have bothered to acknowledge that I'm standing there, plus, I don't really deal well when people continually ask the same question until they get the answer they want to hear. It annoys the living fucking hell out of me, frankly, but whatever. There I am, waiting and growing impatient bit by bit. After the 15 minutes or so, I am joined by a man and another girl, who is standing behind the man, who is standing behind me. Thus, we have established a hierarchy, if you will, of waiting. First me, then the man, then the girl. Did I mention I have been waiting 15 minutes? And that the man just got there? Well, he starts to loudly comment on the fact that this is taking a long time. I turn around and look at the guy, because a) I'm rather irritated at the wait at this point, and b) I'm now rather irritated that this man who hasn't even been waiting 3 lousy minutes is actually standing there ruining my quiet little cocoon by bitching about how long this is taking. I then look at the girl behind him, and she raises her eyebrows, looks at me, and shrugs. I turn back around. Unhappy with the lack of attention he has gotten with his comments, dickhead now starts speaking even more loudly, because apparently he feels his already booming voice has not carried the 3.5 feet or so beyond me to the salesman behind the counter still doggedly trying to explain to the woman in front of my why the answer to her question is still no. The fact that his voice is practically echoing back over all of us from the wall 6 feet beyond *that* is clearly eluding the man. He continues to raise his voice, and now that indirect comments about how loooooong the line is (yeah; 3 people is really long) and how loooooong we've all been waiting (what's this fucking "we;" you got a frog in your pocket, pal?) and how someone better call a manager right quick have gone unacknowledged, he starts to actively bellow at the kid behind the counter that he had better get someone over there right now, he shouldn't have to stand in line, get a manager - you got managers in this place, don'tcha, I know you do - get a manager over here right now and get TWO cash registers opened up to help people, this long line is ridiculous, I shouldn't have to wait like this, and by God, I'll do something about it if you don't. Meanwhile, I am growing more and more tense, until I am shaking, and I want to turn around and scream shutupshutupshutUP, you fucking asshole, he's only doing his job, and I've been standing here a helluva lot longer than you have, and all I want to do is get thru my freaking day without being accosted by a dickless wonder like you, so shut the fuck up before I completely freak out and chop you into tiny little pieces, you obnoxious piece of CRAP. I swear to you people, this guy was so strident I thought his head was going to spin around and spew pea soup. And it wouldn't have phased me, because he had already set every nerve I had on edge with his belligerence. So the manager Don came over all frowny and what-the-hell-is-going-on-over-here? and made it fairly clear just by his attitude that that kind of behavior was way beyond the pale, but the jerk didn't get it, so it was pretty much a waste of time, though I thanked him for shutting the guy the hell up, and the girl behind me seconded it. And I then made a vow never to let my irritation in public get out of hand just because it might freak someone else out the way that idiot did me.

Whew.

Okay. I took Pete to work the other day, which I realize makes me look a little unbalanced, but he has a whole passel of people who keep asking me when I'm going to post another picture of him, so I figured I should. Who knew when I went to France that out of all the Thousands of Pictures I Took of Really Neat Stuff We Do Not Have in America, the ones that everyone would think were really awesome were the ones that have Pete in them? I mean, it was just a goofy joke thing for fun that MP thought of, but it's proven ridiculously popular amongst my friends and some of my family, who all think it's hilarious. So I took Pete with me, and then I went to my friend's house for dinner, and while I was in the kitchen, Pete was kidnapped and held for ransom, because that's the sense of humour her husband has. I came out and found a ransom note on my bag:

At first I thought Wendy took him to blackmail me into giving her the $50 sterling and crystal bracelet I made that she wanted, but it turns out her husband Jim did it while we were all in the kitchen and Wendy and I were haggling over the bracelet. So I come out, and there's this note and no Pete, and Wendy asking how much he's worth to me and demanding the bracelet in return. But when I went up the hall to the bathroom, I saw this out of the corner of my eye and started laughing.

Jim even told Wendy he had blindfolded Pete so he wouldn't know where he'd been taken, which I thought was absolutely hysterical and laughed until I cried. Your mileage may vary, but if you knew Jim, it would make you laugh that hard, too. So anyway, there you are.

Peace out,
Katie

6 comments so far

Look, without a hostage, there is no ransom. That's what ransom *is*.

*HUGS* TOTAL! give katiedoyle more *HUGS*
Get hugs of your own

Yesterday's News - Next Stop

In which Katie shares sad news - Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2015
In which Katie returns after a very long absence - Monday, Jun. 25, 2012
In which Katie pokes her head in and brushes some of the cobwebs away - Thursday, May. 06, 2010
In which Katie asks you to write your congressman again. - Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
In which Katie asks you to please click the link and send the message to protect the rights of artists - Wednesday, May. 21, 2008